Fading Fast, Falling Faster
by Totally-Out-Of-It
Summary: Brian and Dom find themselves stranded on the side of a mountain. Fighting a concussion and increasing blood loss, Brian has 2 goals in mind - get down the mountain & don't let Dom know about the blood. The longer they walk, the less it seems he'll make it, and he needs to tell Dom about something serious before he dies... But dying this way would be so, so stupid. Brian/Dom


A/N: So if you're reading my Sterek fic, "Marks and Mics", this is part of the reason I haven't updated in two weeks. Sorry about that.

Wrote this fic because I binge watched the Furious movies so I could watch Furious 7 and was always left thinking about how Brian never got hurt (except for that one time in 4 and even then help was like two minutes out). So I wanted to write some hurt/dying Brian. Enjoy.

For Kaylee, who's really really happy I'm in this fandom with her now.

* * *

Everything was fuzzy and sore at first. Someone was talking, or probably yelling given the high pitched ring that clouded his ears, but he couldn't understand the words. Didn't matter though. Brian knew what he had to do without being told. Or he thought he did.

He was in a car, slumped in the driver's seat, and he was alone. Whoever was yelling wasn't in the car, but the passenger side door was wide open. Groaning deeply, Brian tried the handle of his door, but it didn't budge. He felt out of sorts, but no way was he so out of it that he was failing to push open a door. It was jammed, bent mostly on the outside, and there were holes here and there from what Brian recognized to be bullets. The window was shattered.

Giving up on the door, Brian reached up and smacked shards of glass out of his way so he could slowly pull himself through the ruined window.

Damn, he thought. He liked this car. Not loved. But liked.

He was halfway through the hole when strong hands gripped him under the arms and helped wrench him from the crash. For a moment, he couldn't find the ground, even after his feet touched down, but then he was standing and the hands released him.

Mumbled words. Brian winced and pressed a hand over his ear, leaning on his car as his equilibrium tried to settle.

"Brian!" Finally.

He turned to look at who'd said his name and saw Dom. There was a trickle of blood running down the side of his face, but he otherwise looked normal. Lucky jerk.

"Can you walk?" There was urgency to Dom's words that Brian understood but somehow didn't feel.

Nodding, he pushed off the car, but one step had him falling back against it. The ground felt like it had moved away from him, and he couldn't stand up straight anymore.

"What?" He asked, and his voice sounded slow. For a moment too long, he couldn't understand why he was having so much trouble moving. But then the realization dawned on him, slow like a sunrise. The crash. He must have a concussion.

"Damn it," Dom cursed and then bent over to lift Brian off his feet.

The fireman lift was protested, mostly because Brian would have preferred to walk under his own power, but the spinning in Brian's head didn't really give him a lot to work with. He also tried to protest because it hurt him all over and he didn't know why, but those protests died in an incoherent whine of pain muffled into Dom's shirt. In the end, he just closed his eyes and tried to hold on to Dom's back as the other moved quickly away from the wreck of Brian's rented Kia.

Rented! That's right! It wasn't even special, and yet someone had decided they were too suspicious and had taken it out. Good thing Brian had decided to spend the money to cover the insurance. The government sure as hell hadn't offered to cover it.

An explosion rocked the hillside, prying Brian's eyes open enough to recognize the plume of gray smoke and orange flames in the distance. Then Brian's world pitched sideways and he gasped in shock and pain when his back hit the bark of a tree.

"Stay here and stay quiet," Dom ordered. He sounded gruff and upset, his voice more gravely than normal, but the hand he pressed to Brian's tense forehead was nothing but gentle.

When Dom pulled away, Brian watched him crouch and head back the way they'd come. There was something on the back of Dom's thick, white shirt. It was so small that Brian almost missed it, except it was deep red on the barely smudged white.

Squinting against the setting sun that was still too bright for him, Brian reached his right hand up to inspect the largest source of pain on his torso, on his whole body, really. When he pulled his hand back from the upper left side of his torso, he saw the same red that was on Dom's back.

"Ah, fuck." He let out a half delirious sounding laugh, airy and weak, and leaned his head back on the tree. Deep breaths ached a bit but they helped slowly clear his concussed head.

Fuck. He was bleeding on the left side of his ribs. Not remembering how he got the injury didn't stop it from hurting. Yeah, his head ached and his hand was a bit cut up from the car window and he probably had blood on his head too, just like Dom, but all of that was a minor nuisance compared to the heat and pain coming from that one spot on his ribs.

The more he thought about it, the more his side burned, and it confused his head until he couldn't tell how much time was passing. How long had he been sitting alone in this damn forest?

Gritting his teeth, he tried to focus on something else, something less painful. So he tried to remember the events that led up to where he was now.

They were in Washington. He remembered that. It was Summer Vacation in L.A. when Dom got the call. Hobbs needed their help. It didn't take long to convince the team to get together, and by night fall Roman, Tej, Mia, Letty, Brian, and Dom were sitting pretty at a lodge just off Scenic Highway 20.

What was the mission again? Brian closed his eyes tightly as he tried to recall. Damien Rosso. He was an Italian and German mark who ran a sort of evil Underground Railroad. His lucrative railway supplied the sex trade, not freedom, but it did actually go for equality. The women and men abducted by Rosso and his men were not picked out of one category – ethnicity, gender, and sexuality were not factors in who was taken. They were all crimes of opportunity, more or less. The reason Hobbs called them? Damien used getaway drivers to escape with his new 'cargo'. Dom and Brian were meant to either become those drivers or take the responsibility of catching them. Hobbs knew no better drivers.

"It's a little painful to admit, Toretto, but your team… you're the best chance I got," he'd said. But his smile said he loved ignoring half of the government's protocols by using them as "independent contractors".

The plan was simple enough. Letty volunteered as bait – someone who could seem ripe for the taking but also handle herself once she was inside. It took a good half hour to convince Dom to let her go, but Letty won in the end. So Letty would be taken, Tej would tag the car, and then Brian and Rome would follow at a safe distance and do recon on the base of operations in this area. Then the boys would approach Rosso as drivers. If need be, the boys would use Mia as a secondary target to prove their loyalty.

But they didn't get that far.

The first change of plans came when Brian jumped in his rental car – the key was to be discreet, so he couldn't pull up in anything of his own. Instead of Roman sliding in beside him, it was Dom. Over the engine and through the glass, Brian couldn't understand everything Rome was saying, but Brian was pretty sure it had something to do with Dom being a bully and shoving his way through everyone's business so he could do whatever he damn well pleased.

Dom didn't appear to be listening to Rome either. After his butt hit the seat, he and Brian just stared at each other. Brian liked that – that him and Dom could have whole conversations without words. He loved Rome, the way he talked fast and talked a lot and was a lot of fluff but also a lot of substance when it really came down to it. But he loved Dom more. His intensity was even heavier than Brian's, and yet he always knew how to break through both of their stubbornness with some gem of logic and acceptance.

Dom was gravity. And it felt nice to have that force of nature in his passenger seat instead of the nest of hornets that Rome resembled where he stood just outside of the car.

"Okay. Okay, you be that way, Dom. You do that. Ima let it slide this one time. Just remember something, Hulk-man, you're not Bri's only friend!" was the last clear thing Brian heard before Dom shut the door, loudly.

A smile upturned Dom's lips and Brian laughed, revved the engine, and pulled out onto the street.

Letty played her part beautifully, and Tej smacked a short range tracker on the bumper of the getaway car without anyone being the wiser. Everything was working out well in the grand scheme of things when Brian and Dom entered the mountains that morning.

Memory after that was fleeting and fuzzy, and Brian couldn't remember where the local Rosso house had been or how long it had been since they'd found it. The next thing he remembered was Dom looking uncomfortable in the passenger seat, but he couldn't remember what they'd been talking about. Then Dom's eyes went wild and he shouted Brian's name.

Turning, Brian saw the car that had pulled up even with them on the road. It was a black Prius – a fucking Prius – and its riders were black men in muted colors. The passenger had a semi-automatic rifle, which he emptied into the side of Brian's Kia. What he was aiming for was a mystery, but he shattered Brian's window and managed to crack the windshield on Dom's side. The entire driver's side was littered, and the front tire was shot out.

Brian couldn't remember when his ribs caught fire, whether it was before or after the tire exploded, but he knew they didn't leave the road until after the pain. The Kia wasn't meant for off-roading, and somewhere in their topple off the street, Brian blacked out. He couldn't have been out for more than a minute though, because he remembered seeing himself heading for the tree before the black out, and yet after he woke, Dom had enough time to get them far enough away from the wreck before it exploded.

Absentmindedly, he wondered what ruptured the gas tank, a bullet or the crash. Not that it mattered, he reminded himself. He'd been shot and their car was toast. That's what mattered.

"Brian?" Dom was back, and Brian sucked in a breath of shock and pain as he snapped his eyes open to look up at the other man. "How you feelin?"

"Concussions," Brian said in return, his voice sounding rough to his own ears. "They suck so hard. You are lucky you're made of solid iron, Bro." Dom laughed at that, and even Brian took his words as a sign that he wasn't completely messed up. He smiled up at Dom as he said, "No, I'm totally serious though."

"Of course you are," Dom agreed, still smiling as his laughter tapered off. He looked fond and not very worried considering what had just happened to them.

Dom didn't know, Brian realized. He didn't know about the blood on his back or the blood slowly creating a puddle on Brian's upper torso. Well... He probably would have noticed, except Brian had pulled on a black sweater over his blue shirt today - prepping for the cooler mountain air. In fact, if Dom hadn't also been wearing the thicker shirt, he probably would have felt the blood on his back. But because of the weather, he had no idea.

Was that a good thing?

"You alright?" Dom asked again.

Brian nodded and pushed himself to his feet using the trunk. "I'm good," he lied. "But it's gonna take a while to get back to the lodge without the car. We should get started if we wanna make it by sundown."

"Concussion is gonna slow you down. Let me know if you get too dizzy or nauseated, and we'll take a break," Dom ordered.

After a short laugh, Brian said, "And here I thought you were gonna tell me to sit tight while you went and got help."

"I was," Dom admitted and gave Brian a quick glance over, "But you wouldn't've listened."

"Damn right," Brian agreed good-naturedly and they started heading down the mountain.

They couldn't head back to the road, not if that Prius might still be around. If they headed down, they would cross over it again eventually but by then any threat would be long gone. Then it would just be a matter of finding a gas station or a closer lodge or hell a family home so they could contact the team. Would have been so much easier if their phones hadn't been in the damn car.

It was slow going at first. Brian wobbled ever so slightly, which he let Dom believe was entirely the concussion's fault and not partly because walking strained his wound. Dom kept stopping too, hesitating every few minutes to glance back and make sure no one was following them. But Brian couldn't stop. If he stopped, he might not start again.

About twenty minutes into their trek, Brian was having trouble not focusing on his gunshot wound, and he was glad Dom was behind him, so he couldn't see the expressions on Brian's face. Worrying Dom wouldn't help anything. They just needed to get down the damn mountain and then everything could be fretted over. Just a little bit further, he kept telling himself. Just a little further.

"Just a-," he murmured out loud before Dom's voice drowned him out.

"Brian, hold up."

He stumbled a bit, but he managed to do as asked, cursing his luck the whole time. He could feel his blood sticking his clothes to his body all the way down to his hip, had felt every slow inch of its crawl, and the idea made him woozy without the concussion on top of it.

"Yeah?" he asked and clenched his left hand to draw his mind away from his side.

"Just wanted to apologize," Dom said, coming up even with him.

"For what, Man?" He couldn't remember Dom doing anything wrong in the last few days. Was it for something even farther back than that?

"For what happened in the car?" Dom said, trying to prod Brian's brain and failing.

In the car. Brian pressed his lips together, thought hard, but he couldn't remember anything before Dom's uneasy expression. Had something happened between them?

"Sorry. My head's a bit jumbled," he said, motioning lazily around his right ear. A small smile played on his lips as he tried to remove Dom's worry. "Forget about it, Dom."

Wrong thing to say, he realized, when Dom's face only got stony. His own smile wavered and fell, and he swallowed thickly. Shit. What had he forgotten?

Some animal rushed through the bushes to their right, but they never tore their eyes from each other's.

Brian's heart hammered, his mouth felt dry, and he had to fight the urge to reach out to Dom. No matter how many times he saw Dom looking upset, for any reason, he couldn't stop himself from wanting desperately to fix whatever caused it. Half the time, the expression wasn't caused by Brian, but honestly, half the time it was. This time it definitely was, and he couldn't remember what he'd done.

The worst case scenario ran through his head, that somehow he'd come on to Dom while they were driving back. But why would he do that? Mid-mission, mid-drive back to their friends – it wouldn't make any sense to blow his cover at that point. There were too many variables, too many things that could go wrong, and not just in their relationship but for everyone.

"Dom," he tried, unsure how he would continue, but Dom decided for him.

"You're the one who forgot about it, ain't ya?" he asked. "What's the last thing you remember before you woke up in the car?"

"Uh. Some a-holes in a market-value, black Prius lit us up like we were in a gang movie," Brian answered truthfully, leaving out the gritty details of his wound and his fear.

"And before that?" Dom pressed, stepping closer. God, he was close enough to touch, but if Dom reached for him now, he might discover the blood. If Dom reached for him now… Brian might pass out.

"It's uh….," Brian began and then cleared his throat, taking a step back. "Hell, I don't know, Dom. We were driving. Letty got snatched and we drove after her and…. And then the Prius got us."

The silence was hard between them but didn't matter one lick to the forest. Animal calls continued on, unimpeded by the intensity of Dom's eyes. Shit. Brian was forgetting something big. He could tell. Maybe with time, once the concussion was gone, he might remember, but right now it was hopeless.

"We gotta get down the mountain," Brian reminded to alleviate the situation and started walking again.

"Two hours, O'Conner," Dom called out, and Brian winced at the name. He turned back to look at Dom, his ribs protesting. "That's how much time you're missin."

Brian nodded and motioned for Dom to keep walking. They needed to keep walking. No, Brian needed to keep walking. He couldn't tell if his world was fuzzy because of the concussion or because of blood loss, although he hoped it was the concussion, and he needed to get off this damn mountain as soon as possible.

Luckily, Dom followed him when he continued on, although a bit closer than before. Brian rested his left arm slightly across his stomach, trying to inconspicuously put a little pressure on his wound with his bicep. Dom looked at him curiously, and Brian could see him about to ask once more if he was alright, so he quickly spoke up instead.

"So," he said and cleared his throat. "What did I miss in those two hours?"

A gruff grunt answered at first, but then Dom took a deep breath and said, "We found the house. Saw them offload Letty. The Prius was parked maybe a couple hundred feet down the road and saw our second drive by as we headed back to base. They started followin' us, and you tried to lose 'em in town. Seemed like it worked too. Then we headed back through the mountain to get to the others. They found us again, and you remember the rest."

"And why did you apologize? Did you send up a signal flare or something that led them back to us?" Brian asked, focusing more on stepping over bushes than on where he was going or what he was saying.

"No." Dom grunted and then fell silent. Brian didn't notice too much. His mind worried over the fact that he was sweating under his layers despite the cold air, and his heart sped up with anxiety. He needed to get to a hospital.

They came to a higher crest in the mountain, where the ground had been flattened and paved with the second turn of the road, and could see over the trees farther down. Past them, Brian could just make out the lodge. Relief was sort lived as Brian took in how far they had yet to walk. Could he make that? His breath came out in a worried huff and turned instantly to steam in front of his face.

"I brought up you and Mia," Dom said, stepping onto the deserted street and walking briskly over it. That shocked Brian enough to hurry after him with more energy that he thought he even had.

"We've talked about this, Dom," he said, a hint of a growl coming into his voice. At least he meant for it to be a growl. A little shiver got in there too as his body tried to fight off the late morning chill.

"I know. You said that in the car too." The little laugh at the end of Dom's words annoyed Brian.

It had been half a year since he and Mia broke it off. And Dom had asked Brian to explain himself, including this time, four times. After the third time, Brian swore he'd never answer the question again, because he was sick and tired of being asked. And maybe also because he was afraid to answer.

He remembered the day they finally called it quits. Mia was on the porch in a yellow and white sun dress, her hair in a ponytail. Night had rolled in like the waves, and Brian had come up behind her for a hug. In his arms, she sighed and then pat his hand.

"This was never going to last," she said. She didn't ask if that's what he thought to be true. She just told him it was. When he tried to protest, she turned in his arms and smiled at him. "Neither of our hearts are here, Brian. We both know it."

"I love you, Mia," he said and she caressed his cheek.

"And I love you, Brian. But we're not in love with each other. At least… not anymore." Her hand dropped to the porch railing behind her. "It's time we both stopped hiding from what we really want."

So they'd broken up. They still lived in the beach house – as did Dom six days out of seven – but they didn't share a room. Brian took up residence on the couch, insisting Mia take the better sleeping arrangements. Besides, he'd pointed out, the couch was plenty comfortable. It meant he couldn't sleep half naked anymore, in case there was company over, but that was a loss his could deal with.

At first Brian hadn't been sure exactly what Mia had meant that night. But in the week following, she'd made enough eye motions between him and Dom that he knew. He didn't know how she knew, though. He'd been doing so well, ignoring his feelings for one Toretto by focusing on his feelings for the other, but somehow even Mia had figured out that it was a losing battle.

The only thing stopping Brian at that point was fear – fear that trying to act on his feelings, with the blessing of Mia, would break the bond he already had with Dom. Or worse, hurt the close relationship of the siblings. So it had been six months and here he was, no closer to telling Dom how he felt or explaining the true reason of his breakup with Mia.

And every time Dom tried asking him again, that fear built higher, stronger walls around Brian's heart. And that fear made him angry.

"Then why do you keep asking?" Brian asked, when his sore and dizzy body caught up with Dom's on the other side of the road.

"Because it don't make sense to me," Dom admitted easily, rubbing his left arm to keep away the chill of the mountain air. Brian shivered two steps behind Dom, and the older man didn't notice. "You two dated for, what, two years? Then you break it off and… and neither of you seems to mind. It's like you planned it."

"We didn't plan anything," Brian said, covering a stumble and holding back a hiss as his sloppy footwork pulled his wound. "We just… We knew we were lying to ourselves. That we just-"

God, he was cold. He tried to rub down both his arms, but his left arm couldn't move far enough without his ribs screeching in pain, and so he only rubbed one. Unlike the last gasp of pain Brian let out, Dom was alert and aware of this one. He turned around to face Brian and looked him over for injuries – but Brian didn't let him get a good look at the side that undoubtedly had blood starting to be visible through the black.

"Brian?" he asked.

Whereas Dom had stopped walking, Brian hadn't, and he passed his friend easily. He really couldn't stop this time. The chill made him shiver, and he could feel his left hand shaking, and he knew that if he stopped, he'd fall. The pain was in his ribs, but he could feel it everywhere – in his legs and his arms and his toes.

"I'm fine," he grunted, not sure if he'd been loud enough for Dom to hear.

"Like hell you are," Dom argued and grabbed Brian's left arm to pull him to a stop. His fingers snapped off instantly, like he'd been burned, when Brian cried out, and without the support, Brian's legs dropped under the pain.

The fire was everywhere, and Brian squeezed his eyes shut against it. His body curled down around itself, and his breathing was quick and labored as he tried to ride out the wave of pain, but it didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave him. Fuck, there was no way Dom didn't know now. There was no way to cover such a violent reaction to such an innocent move. And even if he could explain away the reaction, he could feel indisputable blood pulsing with angry force from his wound. No matter how dark his clothes, there was no way for Dom not to see it now.

"Shit. God damn," Brian hissed out and grabbed at his left shoulder to stop himself from grabbing the actual wound.

"Brian…" Dom's voice was full of worry and anxiety, but Brian couldn't look up at him. He tried, but he only managed to fold back tighter because of the movement. Then Dom was kneeling in front of him, and Brian saw the blood on Dom's hand. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Gyuh- wasn't…. We just needed to get down the mountain," Brian said through clenched teeth and shook his head. "Didn't want you to worry for no reason."

"No reason?!" Dom exclaimed and then took a purposeful deep breath to calm himself down. After a moment, Brian's pain started to lessen just a bit and Dom's breathing was even and calm once more. "Let me see."

Unsure just how much pain an inspection would cause, Brian tried to ask Dom not to with his eyes, but the older driver's eyes were stone serious. Brian had never been able to deny those eyes, and so he moved his left arm as far out of the way as he could.

Dom did the work of lifting Brian's sweater and shirt, and his face only got worse when he saw that the blood had made it down into Brian's pants. When the shirt started to pull on the wound, Brian's face contorted but he bit down hard to keep any sounds from escaping his throat.

"Bullet wound," Dom stated monotonously. "That's why you crashed?"

Brian nodded sharply and Dom replaced the shirt, gently unfurling it along Brian's wet skin. Tire or no tire, Brian should have been able to avoid the tree… but not with the wound clouding his brain. When Dom released the last bit of his shirt, Brian dropped his arm back into place and collapsed against Dom's chest.

"You're an idiot," Dom grunted, carefully wrapping an arm around Brian.

"Sorry," Brian murmured and closed his eyes. His breaths were deep but pained as he waited for the new rush of dizziness to leave him. But it wouldn't. The world kept spinning, even with his eyes shut, and Brian's breathing sped up slightly. His right hand clenched on Dom's shirt and he let out an undignified whine. "S-Sorry," he said again.

"We're almost to the bottom," Dom said like a promise and Brian felt Dom slide an arm behind his back and then wiggled his other one under Brian's knees. "This is gonna hurt," Dom warned.

Brian nodded, understanding the new plan, and Dom lifted him from the forest floor. After watching Dom lift Letty like a child, Brian had always wondered what being picked up by Dom would feel like, but the situation couldn't have been less useful in answering the question. Instead of the rush of feeling Dom's strength or the arousal from knowing Dom could overpower him with ease, Brian felt only pain and nausea and the endless spinning.

Each step was unpleasant, his wound pressing against his arm and feeling every vibration. Dom's shirt was beyond ruined, what with Brian's bloody side leaking all over it, but he didn't seem to care. Absently, Brian wondered if there was enough blood to get through to Dom's skin yet, but the possibility of that being true made him sick with worry.

He'd been sure, at first, that he could make it to the bottom, to help, but now he worried he couldn't. His legs had been fighting him for several minutes before Dom's tug had rendered them useless, and damn if he couldn't stop his hand from shaking. God, it would so suck to die this way – shot on a mountain. After all their crazy shit-

"You cold?" Dom asked, and Brian's first, best response was to let out a puff of air like a laugh.

"Yeah. Yeah, maybe a little," Brian joked. He opened his eyes to look up at Dom, hoping to catch sight of a grin to give him some release from his anxiety. "Not too heavy, am I?"

"Light as a feather," Dom answered, smiling down at Brian, and Brian relaxed against Dom. The smile was nice, and Brian kept it in his mind long after Dom looked back at the path ahead, and he closed his own eyes.

The fabric of Dom's shirt felt nice against his cheek, and Brian was overcome with a sense of safety, cradled like a child in Dom's arms. He should feel embarrassed, or upset, or at least uneasy, but he didn't. He'd dreamt of cuddling with Dom before, just not because of a life or death situation, and he found no reason to let embarrassment become a factor. So despite the pain in his side, the burn of the wound, and the slow drain of energy from his body, Brian felt surprisingly peaceful.

A few steps later, or maybe it was a few minutes, Brian couldn't really tell, he started feeling like his chest was constricting. His forehead pulled tight together and his breathing got short, trying to pull air into what felt like failing lungs.

"Dom-," he gasped, fingers fisting around more of Dom's white shirt. "Dom-"

"Hold on, Brian. We're almost there," Dom said, and pulled Brian tighter against him.

He was totally dying. This was such shit. How could he be dying like this? Brian shivered harshly and pressed his face into the warmth of Dom's shirt, which was now wet from sweat and blood all along Brian's body. When had he had time to sweat so much? Shit, how long had they been walking without Brian noticing?

"Dom," he tried again, forcing air into his lungs so he might be able to say a whole sentence.

"Sshh, Bri. Stay with me." Gosh he sounded so close, but Brian felt like he was slipping away – out of Dom's arms and straight through the mountain itself.

"Gotta… gotta tell you why-," Brian murmured, even his mouth feeling tired. The thought, the sentence, was so clear in his mind, but he was having such a hard time forcing his lips to work. "Me 'n Mia."

"Tell me when you're better," Dom ordered. Brian didn't know how, but Dom had a hand on his head, cradling it like he had Brian's body, and then he thought he felt Dom press a kiss into his hair. "You gotta do that for me. Understand? Promise me, Brian."

"Mmm prmiss," Brian said, which sounded perfectly like "I Promise" in his head.

After that, Brian didn't know where he was. He felt no energy to speak, nor had the urge to find some. How long had it been since he'd been in Dom's arms? Was he still there? It was like drifting on the edge of sleep, not aware of your surroundings and yet not in a dream either. He heard voices, but his brain wasn't awake enough to recognize the words or the people saying them. Curiosity and a need to know what was going on drove him to try and listen, but his body kept trying to soothe him further into sleep.

He couldn't sleep, though. Something in him told him not to sleep, to fight it, to wake up. But he was just so tired. More voices tugged for his attention and he pulled on them, fought to get to them. Wake up, he yelled at himself. Wake up! He needed to figure out what was going on, needed to find Dom and Letty and get to the team, but he couldn't move!

"Brian?" a voice caught him, clearer than before. "Can you hear me? Mr. O'Conner?"

A light in his eyes made him groan and he tried to turn away, but a hand held his face steady.

"Pupil reaction slow but noticeable," the voice called out. "BP sixty over forty. He needs a transfusion immediately."

"Dom," Brian groaned out, rolling his head away from the woman's voice. He tried to open his eyes on his own, but everything was bright and his lids were so heavy.

Three people were talking around him, none of them Dom. Medical lingo kept getting tossed over him, and one person was pulling on his shirt, cutting it off him, while someone else was stabbing him with a needle, and he couldn't focus. There was so much, and he didn't understand. Where was he?

"Dom," he said again. "Where-"

"Don't worry, Mr. O'Conner. Your friend is right here," the woman said, bent down close to his ear.

A moment passed and then a strong hand grabbed Brian's, and he recognized the feeling of Dom's palm and fingers. "I'm here for you, Brian," his rumbling voice promised.

"Heart rate is dropping," a man said.

"Brian, don't you-"

The only reason he could tell, for sure, that he lost consciousness, was that in one moment, Dom had been speaking and in the next moment, he wasn't. All the sounds went away, and the brightness of the world too.

It wasn't that he noticed darkness. No, he could still tell there was light outside of his eyelids, but it no longer gave him a headache. And there were still sounds, just not the panicked machines and people shouting. Everything had dropped to a pleasant level. It was like he'd jumped a few hours by blinking.

Prying his eyes open, Brian noticed a tv turned off, a window with the curtains drawn, and a blue, hard plastic door closing him in. Lowering his eyes to the bed he was laying in, all of his assumptions became reality. A hospital bed. He was hooked up to two different drips – one for blood and one IV.

His bed was flat and his pillow was almost non-existent. Lifting his head, he tried to get a better view of the room, but it made his head spin a little, and he groaned before dropping gently back onto his dish towel of a pillow.

Two transfusions, he guessed. Potentially three. He could feel the strength in his limbs again, and his core temperature was up closer to normal, and the worst pain he felt was the rumbling of his stomach. Curious. Careful of his two attachments, Brian reached carefully over to find his bullet wound. It was padded by something thick and solid but soft, and he felt only mild tension when feeling it out.

They must have given him some awesome pain medication, because there was no way he'd been out long enough for the shot to heal to this low level of pain. But shit, how long had he been out for? What happened to Letty? The other victims? To Dom?

Groaning, he pushed himself up to a sitting position and then pressed his palm firmly against his right temple to combat what felt like swelling but was probably just a head rush. Before he could get himself situated, the door opened.

"Don't know what you think you're doin', hot shot, but you better lay your ass back down on that bed before I strap you down," a very familiar woman's voice ordered. Looking up, Brian found Letty standing in the doorway.

"Letty," Brian said, voice rougher than he expected, and he cleared his throat. "You're here. We finished the mission?"

Her smile was just as fierce as her attitude. "Yeah we finished, Buster. I think the guys hit the house a bit too hard, but hey, you gave us all a scare. Hobbs was barely in the door before Dom was checking out to head here. Everybody was, and of course that's how I found out. Can't believe you thought it'd be okay to go out that way after all we been through."

She stepped up beside him and pressed on his right shoulder until he conceded and laid back down. His lips tugged up in a smile. "You know me – stupid ideas runnin' through my brain all the time." As he straightened back out, he felt the tension in his side from the wound and groaned again. "So how long was I out?"

"Eh, nurses say you've been sorta dozing mostly, so technically you were 'out' for about fourteen hours. But officially unconscious? Less than ten minutes. I think they gave you a sedative to help with the pain once you finished your first transfusion, and that's why you've been gone so long." Carefully, she sat herself on the side of his bed. "How you feelin'?"

"Stiff," Brian admitted. "This has got to be the most uncomfortable bed ever. And this pillow? Complete shit."

Letty laughed. "They had to regulate your blood pressure, stupid. What did you expect – the Ritz?"

"Yeah, I guess not," Brian said with a laugh of his own, and they devolved into a companionable silence.

Honestly, Brian had been hoping Dom would be the first person he saw. He'd promised to explain him and Mia, for one thing, but also because no doubt Dom wanted to scold him, and Brian would like to get that out of the way. He had Letty sitting right in front of him, but his eyes drifted to the open, empty doorway. She didn't miss the shift.

"Calm down, tiger. He's having a fight with a vending machine," she said with a grin. "By which I mean, he's staring at it with his big broody eyes and waiting for it to give up its contents for free or until he can figure out what he wants."

"What does he want?" Brian asked without thinking and rubbed the side of his head.

He could remember Dom's uneasy face in the car before the crash… and before that had they been arguing?

"What do you want me to say, Dom?" he remembered shouting.

"The truth." It sounded so heavy, and Dom sounded so sad.

"Why don't we talk about you and Letty instead, huh? Shouldn't you be worrying about that?" Brian asked, driving a little too fast.

"There ain't no me and Letty," Dom said, and damn how could he seem so calm? Brian was nothing but nerves whenever this came up. "Hasn't been since she died. You know that. Everybody knows that. She's still Letty, but she's not my Letty."

"Amnesia, yeah, I got that. But can't you just remind her somehow? I mean you two were like a super couple," Brian argued. It wasn't that he wanted Dom and Letty to suddenly be that super couple again, especially since he was single again too, but he wanted them to be happy. And they'd seemed so damn happy before the amnesia.

"You can't tell someone they're in love with you," Dom said, and Brian took his eyes off the road to look over at him. They were talking about Letty, but it felt like they were talking about themselves.

Brian wanted to tell Dom that racing him was the greatest rush of his life, that he would do anything for Dom including die for him, that he often dreamt of him doing stupidly domestic shit, and that he also dreamt of him in the dark of night, coming out to see Brian on the couch. But if Dom didn't love him like he used to love – still loved? – Letty… then would they still be family?

"No," Brian agreed, frowning. "No, you can't."

They looked into each other's eyes for a good long moment, Brian maneuvering the slow curve of the road with no difficulty. When Dom opened his mouth to speak, Brian looked away, ashamed. "You sound like you really understand," Dom said, voice barely audible around its own rumble. "There someone who makes you wish you could?" Silence, and then, "Mia?"

Brian looked over again, wishing beyond anything that he could find the right way to explain to Dom exactly how much he didn't wish he could force Mia to love him. He didn't want to force Dom either, but they couldn't even start on that path until Brian found some way to prove how not together he and Mia were, apparently. He just wished he had a sign that everything would be alright if he confessed – whether or not he got Dom's love romantically.

"What do you want from me, Dom?"

When they locked eyes again, Dom looked uneasy, perhaps even a little sad, and Brian's frown got worse. He swallowed thickly, searched for something to say, some way to explain. And then Dom's eyes got serious, and then wide, and then he cried out in warning, and-

Brian closed his eyes and sighed heavily. Letty's hand set over his, still on his head, and her thumb caressed the back of his hand. "Deep breaths, Bri," she cooed. It was quite possibly the most motherly thing she'd ever done to him, and for some reason it made him want to cry. He sniffled and sucked back all that emotion, hiding it under a rug in the back of his mind where his feelings for his real parents hid.

"Sorry," he murmured and lowered his hand, taking hers with it. "How are, um. How are you? How's everyone else?"

"Worried sick about your stupid ass," she said, serious. "The others are camped out in the waiting room, but I came to check on you, make sure you were still breathing. As for Dom… he's pretty wrecked. Don't think I've seen him this bad since… well since he realized I wasn't his anymore."

"And you're both sure about that?" Brian asked, his frown returning like it had in the car.

"One hundred percent," Letty said with a solemn nod. "We both had a couple years without each other. We've become different people. I think, even when he brought me back, we both knew it wasn't going to work out. He's my best friend, and I can't make him any more than that."

"And what about Dom? How's he feel about all that?" Don't hope, he told himself. Don't hold your breath, cause you'll pass out before you get what you want.

"I think he let himself move on long before I came back. And then I confused him for awhile when I reentered your lives… but he's not in love with me anymore. So you don't have to worry." She smiled at him in the same way that Mia kept smiling at him, like she knew somehow about Brian's heart.

"Why would I worry?" Brian asked. "Dom's a big boy. He can take care of himself."

"Not really," Letty said with a chuckle. "If it wasn't for you and Mia, I don't know how Dom would survive. The number of times he's told me how you keep him sane-" She cut herself off, pressed her smiling lips together and shook her head slightly. "Trust me. You got nothin' to worry about."

There was a knock at the door and Letty turned to look at the newcomer, giving Brian a better view of the door too. Dom was there, leaning gently on the frame, and it appeared the snack machine had finally come to terms with him because he was holding a bag of Fritos in his hand.

With a caring smile, Letty turned back to Brian, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. "Get well, Bri. I gotta see you on the track soon."

Then she slipped off the bed and left, patting Dom's chest as she passed him. This was what Brian wanted, really, to be alone with Dom. To explain. But now that he had it, he just felt stupid. He hadn't been the slightest bit embarrassed being cradled in Dom's arms, but he felt utterly pathetic laying on the flat hospital bed, wearing stupid hospital pants and nothing else.

"Hey," he greeted dumbly.

"Hey," Dom said beautifully back.

"Uh… so what happened to my clothes?" Brian asked. Shit. Not how he'd meant for this conversation to go.

"Had to throw them out. You'd bled over every last piece. Don't worry. Mia brought you a new change of clothes when she came over." Dom frowned despite the blandness of the news. "Is that really what you wanna talk about, though?"

"Honestly? I'm just waiting for you to start scolding me some more." Even though Letty had just gotten him down, Brian pushed himself up again, and unlike Letty, Dom helped him get upright.

"You know, I was gonna, but Mia gave me a pretty intense scolding of her own, so I think there's been enough of that for one day." His hand lingered on Brian's arm after it helped him stabilize, and Brian leaned into it. "Ask me again tomorrow."

With a small, slow shake of his head, Brian smiled in response to the undertone of the order. The only way to ask tomorrow was if he didn't die in the meantime, so it was an order to be alive tomorrow as much as it was to ask to be scolded. It seemed Dom was being an overachiever today and giving two orders at once.

"So Brian," Dom began, hand on the rail of Brian's bed. "Gonna fulfill that promise you made me on the mountain?"

The promise to explain his breakup with Mia. Brian pressed his lips together, the perfect example of seriousness on his face, and nodded slowly – mostly to make sure he didn't get a head rush doing it.

"We talked a lot," Brian said. "About what we wanted out of life, I mean. She really wants to be a nurse and I… I always talked about things I wanted, but I had no real direction. Every goal of my life I've ever had - I threw them all away over you. I gave up being a cop to let you go, became a guy who lived by racing. I got into the FBI, ran down high profile criminals for a living, which was everything I ever wanted, and I blew a hole in that to rescue you from prison and go on the run."

"Brian-," Dom tried to interrupt, tried to apologize. Brian could hear the words already, and he held up a hand to stop Dom's attempt.

"And I never even cared. For me it was always the right thing to do. When we first met, Mia told me you were like gravity, and she was absolutely right. Whenever we talked about our futures, I couldn't ever imagine it unless it involved helping you. That wasn't structure. That wasn't a plan. And one day we finally had the final conversation. Our roads weren't the same." Brian looked away toward the window. "We both still love each other, but like family, not romantically. After we decided our run was at an end, she hugged me and told me to follow my heart, because she was gonna follow hers."

"And she went back to school," Dom said, seeing where the story went. "And you?"

Brian shrugged. Now came the toughest part. "And I hung around, doing odd jobs, so I'd be available when you'd need me. Cause, well, that's where my heart leads me."

That's where his heart was. It was helping Dom. It was working with him, being around him. It was keeping this family of theirs together and connected. He couldn't imagine anything better than his found family, and his face took on a pout as he tried not to get emotional, imagining how he could be screwing it up.

"What's with that face?" Dom asked, and at least he was smiling. It was a good start. He reached his strong, calloused hand down and cupped Brian's face, keeping him from turning away. "You sad, Brian?"

A tired, sour laugh escaped Brian's throat. "That entirely depends on how you respond in the next 10 seconds."

Dom chuckled in the back of his throat, a beautiful sound, and leaned over Brian, his face stopping only an inch away. "You sure this is where your heart leads you?" he asked, a slight tease in his voice over the word choice. "You're not just concussed?"

Air felt heavy in his lungs, but Brian nodded. He grabbed the back of Dom's neck, pulling him down the last inch and pressing their lips together. Was this really happening or was he still suffering the side effects of blood loss and a concussion? He'd confessed and Dom had kissed him. Or… well Brian had kissed Dom, but Dom started it.

When the short contact ended, Dom pulled back and chuckled again. "At least you're sure," he said, his fingers tracing Brian's cheekbone and then going up to his forehead, where he had a bandage from his forehead smacking the steering wheel.

"I'm sure?" Brian asked. "I wanna ask if _you_ have a concussion. Are you sure? What about-?"

"If I have to remind you one more time that I'm not with Letty, O'Conner, I'll give you a concussion myself," Dom threatened with a smile. "And if you ever get hurt on a job again, I expect you to tell me, or at least tell somebody. No dying for heroics, understand?"

"I was doing a bang up job before you ripped the wound wide, I'll remind you," Brian argued. Dom's face went serious, but with a note to it that said he found Brian endearing. Brian could only grin in response. "Okay, I promise."

"Good." And Dom placed a kiss on his forehead, his warm lips feeling good on Brian's skin. "Cause Mia threatened to kill me if I broke you."

"I don't even know how Mia knew," Brian admitted, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of Dom being so close.

The gruff voice chuckled again. "Her and Letty… they have ways of knowing things. But I guess it's always easier to see things like this when you're on the outside."

Brian faked flinching, which only caused him to really flinch as it stirred his wound. "Ouch, Dom. That makes it sound like I wasn't good to her. Hurts more than being shot."

"Shut up and rest, O'Conner." And then Dom pulled a Letty and urged him back down to his pillow. "You've got another two days in that bed for the gunshot and one more transfusion to get through before you're allowed to try throwing sass again."

A pained groan escaped Brian's throat that had nothing to do with his wounds. Two more days in this bed? It was like a nightmare. And then another nightmarish thought came to him and he groaned again. "Tej and Rome aren't gonna let me live this down for years. God, that's gonna suck."

"More than a concussion?" Dom asked.

"So much more than a concussion."

Dom laughed at him, and really that was just unfair.

…


End file.
